Is Dining A Lost Art?

A correspondent of the Pall Mali Qatette onsiders diniug a lost art ; thi8 has purially arisen from exuessive style, tor which the ladies are responsible. This grumbler growls because he is always )laced between two women, and the width of the table, with lts display of ilants, cuts off the men opposite. Then he invention of gas has played the mishief with the oomfort of dinners; thero s an excesii of light, an intense glare of azzling table-cloth, which now is never emoved. " How pleasant," he says, "ït U8ed to be in oíd days to sea the white able-oloth rolled up and'oarried away!" his grumbler has no hope for better hings, saying: "The ladies, I fear, take too much pride in these solemn festivities over to consent to give them up. They will, in spite of our protestationo, go on making broad their tables, and enlarging the borders of their table-oloths. Tbey niight, however, keep their wide tables, their green house plants, their blazo of gas, their heated air, their crowd ed pnrtit'8, for all tha fooi of thair aquaintancr" i